Labour has written to parliament’s standards watchdog asking for an investigation into claims that Lee Anderson was offered a six-figure financial incentive to join the Reform party the year before he defected.
Ellie Reeves, the chair of Labour, called on the parliamentary standards commissioner, Daniel Greenberg, to look into the circumstances of Anderson’s decision to join Reform.
She highlighted a recording that was leaked in November last year in which Anderson, then a Conservative, told activists: “Now there is a political party that begins with an R that offered me a lot of money to join them. I say a lot of money, I mean a lot of money.”
Reform’s then leader, Richard Tice, who is now an MP, described Anderson’s claims at the time as “total lies”.
But Anderson subsequently explained: “At one such meeting I was offered the chance to join another party for the following deal – I join within a few months and stand for this party at the next election.
“If I lost my seat I would be guaranteed a job with the party for five years on the same salary as an MP. To falsely claim that I used this as leverage to get the position of deputy chairman is an insult to me and my party.”
As a Conservative, Anderson reported the alleged offer of a financial inducement to the Tory party whips, who told the Commons speaker. The speaker suggested the Conservatives could report the offer to the police, but Tory sources say this never happened.
Anderson defected to the Reform party in March 2024 and is now an MP for the party.
At the time he joined Reform, he told GB News, which employs him as a presenter, that he had not taken any money to become an MP for the party.
“No, absolutely not,” he said. “One hundred per cent, don’t be so ridiculous … I’m not a mercenary. I’ve had no money.”
However, Reeves said she would like the commissioner to check whether the MPs’ code of conduct had been followed.
“Economic enticement should have no place at all in UK politics – it undermines democratic norms, undermines national security and ultimately undermines the principle of having faith that elected politicians act in the interests of their constituents. I look forward to your response,” she wrote in her letter.
Anderson was no longer a Tory MP at the time he joined Reform. He had resigned as deputy chair of the party over Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda bill, saying it did not go far enough to stop small boat crossings.
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Anderson subsequently had the whip suspended after refusing to apologise for remarks about Sadiq Khan on GB News that the London mayor described as “Islamophobic, anti-Muslim and racist”.
Anderson had told GB News Khan had “given our capital city away to his mates.
“I don’t actually believe that the Islamists have got control of our country, but what I do believe is they’ve got control of Khan, and they’ve got control of London.”
He won his seat of Ashfield again in July while standing for Reform and is now the party’s chief whip in the Commons for its five MPs.
Reform, Anderson and Tice have been contacted for comment.
Source: theguardian.com
